Corinne's First Night with Us

Well folks, I totally lucked out. The only thing that kept me awake was my own nervousness and that squeaky trundle bed. Corinne got a 2:30AM feeding that I could sense coming on for about 15mins so I had plenty of time to get out diaper change gear, rubber gloves, face mask, athletic supporter, Bozo the Clown hat and turn on Classical Music for Babies before the first whimpers could be uttered.

Unraveling the swaddled layers to the diaper was the most time consuming thing. I was able to mix, nuke, and shake the bottle with one hand while she played tightrope walker on my twig of an arm. Even burping was right on cue. The only thing to quibble about is that she is not guzzler and I couldn’t get her to take more than 3oz. Laying her on the floor and stomping on the bottle did not produce the desired effect.

After the bottle, she wanted to stare and smile instead of sleep, but all I needed to do was wrestle with the octopus of extension cables to swap the bright lamp back to the night light (being careful not to short the space heater) and when I turned around, she was out.

Nick actually had more difficulty through the night than Corinne. He slept in a different room than the previous two nights and that threw him off a bit. We are going to rearrange the rooms yet again to get the crib in the other room so Nick can have his familiar room back and I can get a bed that my vertebrae can relate. I will take a picture so folks can sympathize with the maids trying to maneuver a sheet change.

Much of the upfront documentation is being handled quite quickly. We have notarized powers of attorney, meet our lawyer Dr. Polo, and will do Bienestar (Welfare interview) early tomorrow morning. Not a lot of dead time waiting for all the legal channels to crank up.

It is really nice to work with Annette again and travel in her car decked out with seat belts! The “personal space” allotted to cars is about 1/10 of what we might find comfortable. Its just another one of those things you just experience and let happen to yourself here and think about latter.

I have reacquainted myself and the Walton’s with the layout of the streets and shops around Betty’s house. Tomorrow, I will probably introduce the Walton’s to Macu (More Artifacts of Colombia than U need).

Bye for now…

The Presentation

The presentation was a dream. We shared the event with two other couples getting their sons: one couple from our FANA group, the Walton’s hailing from Toronto (Oakville) were presented their son Benjamin and the other couple from Luxemburg were presented their son Andres. Annette and Guillermo took us all in his proudly polished red van decked out with 1in. whitewalls.

Diane and I received Corinne first. I held Nick while Corinne turned the corner. Nick had treated the news of Corinne at the referral in such a nonchalant, mater-of-fact manner; I didn’t know how he would react to Corinne at the presentation. Nick could not contain his excitement: “WE HAVE A NEW BABY NAMED CORINNE!!!” I really could not contain him and had to set him down. Nick had brought a little pink bunny for Corinne and from the floor, tossed it up at her as we were receiving her into our arms.

Perhaps Corinne is saving it for me tonight, but she has yet to cry or hardly fuss; that is how docile she is. She was all eyes for us and as soon as Diane said, “I love you”, she began to chat with us. Since both of the other couples were without video, I busied myself with the camcorder capturing the enduring images for all. Finally, I got to hold her. I think she likes me. I never let her go after that until perhaps an hour after we arrived back at Betty’s. Betty sez I turned into a marshmallow. All she wants is to be at the wedding when I have to give her away.

Mercedes, Flor, Elizabeth and many more familiar FANA faces were present for all the festivities including the Champagne (it is a Kedge event).

Celebrations continued at Betty’s with traditional empanadas. Steve Walton and myself have busily gotten the fireplace and space heaters stoked to warm the rooms for the night. We both have an interesting night ahead. I am going to go get prepared, if I can….